WOOLLY KANGAROO.—Micropus Laniger. 
Nearly eight months elapse between the time when the young Kangaroo is first placed 
in the pouch and the period of its life when it is able to leave the pouch and seek 
subsistence for itself. Even after it has become too large to continue its residence in its 
former cradle, it is in the habit of pushing its head into the pouch and refreshing itself 
with a draught of warm milk, even though a younger brother or sister should be occupant 
of the living cradle. The little animal weighs about ten pounds when it becomes too 
heavy for its mother to carry. 
This Kangaroo is a very hardy animal, and thrives well in England, where it might 
probably be domesticated to a large extent if necessary, and where it would enjoy a more 
genial climate than it finds in many districts of its native land. One of the favoured 
localities of this species is the bleak, wet, and snow-capped summit of Mount Wellington. 
At different times of the year the coat of the Kangaroo varies somewhat in its 
colouring and density. During the summer the fur is lig] it and comparatively scanty, 
but when the colder months of the year render a warmer covering needful, the animal is 
clothed with very thick and woolly fur, that is admirably calculated to resist the effects 
of the damp, cold climate. It is a very singular fact that those specimens which inhabit 
the forests are much darker in their colour than those which live in the plains. The 
young Kangaroos are lighter in their colouring than their parents, but up to the age of 
two years their fur deepens so rapidly that they are darker than the old animals. After 
that age, however, the fur fades gradually, until it fine illy settles into the greyish-brown 
of the adult animal. 
The eye of the Kangaroo is very beautiful, large, round, and soft, and gives to the 
animal a gentle, oazelle- like expression that compensates for the savage aspect of the 
teeth, as they gleam whitely between the cleft lips. 
THE largest of the Macropide, of which there are already known upwards of eighty 
species, is the WooLLy Kancaroo, or Rep KANGAROO, as it is more popularly called, on 
account of its peculiarly tinted fur. 
